Life Goes On
by Lord of Tuft
Summary: Aelita has lived in the real world for a few weeks now and she's happy, but tired. Odd decides she needs a break, and decides that they shall skip classes that day. OddLita fluff, don't like, don't read. Part 2 of my "Life" series. Read "Life Starts Now" first if you haven't.


**Ah, I finally came up with an idea for the continuation of "Life Starts Now". Now keep in mind that this is OddLita, don't like, don't read. Simple as that. And again, I have nothing against JerLita, I just never really got into it. So no flames please, it will not do anything. And remember, if you haven't read my last fic, then read that one first. Now, enjoy :)**

Per usual, the cafeteria was a noisy place. I had gotten used to everything, though. I had now lived in the real world for almost a month, and frankly it's all thanks to Odd. If he hadn't given me that pep talk at the beginning, I don't know what I might have done.

My life here had taken a big turn for the better. I'd gotten more, well, competent at living, and found out that the people here didn't `hate´ me. I was just the new kid. Sissi however, was a different story. She continued to be mean, but I'd learned to ignore her words, and simply retort. Ulrich and Odd were apparently really proud of me because of that, saying things like `our little girls is finally growing up´. I would just laugh and punch them playfully in the arm. I have to admit though, it's not Sissi's words that hurt. It's the look in her eyes.

Odd slumped down at the end of the table with a tray filled to the rim with food. He smiled happily as he picked up his knife and fork. I eyed his plate with wide eyes. I knew he had a big appetite, but this was something else. This was more than he usually ate. Ulrich eyed him with slight indifference.

"You know, Odd, you'll eat the school bankrupt if you keep on eating that much."

"That's my goal," he said after swallowing. "It's also the reason why my parents sent me to boarding school. Sending me to an expensive boarding school in a different country was cheaper than feeding me." We all laughed at the comment. I did my best to keep my laughter in, but failed miserably. "But seriously," Odd continued. "I need to eat. I'm a growing kid, you know."

"Yeah? Well, it's not like you're gonna get any bigger, you know. You're still scrawny."

Odd shot up from the table, and looked sternly at the Stern boy. "I'm not scrawny, I'm svelte!" The entire cafeteria was silent as everybody looked over at our table because of Odd's outburst. I wasn't used to all this attention, so I blushed. Odd then looked at all the staring faces, and continued. "And that goes for all of you! I'm svelte, not scrawny, but svelte! Capito?"

The entire room was silent as the grave when Odd sat back down again with a huff, and began eating again. But soon enough, everybody in the cafeteria started eating and talking again. Only now the talk was about Odd's outburst. I looked shyly over at Odd, who was once again eating happily. How he was able to do things like this so nonchalantly is beyond me...

Odd's really a strong person...

"So, Aelita," Yumi said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "How's life treating you? You doing okay?"

"It's been really fun," I replied. "I finally understand a little better how your everyday lives are and how everything works." I paused for a minute, before continuing. "It's really tiring, though. There's so much work all the time, and I've been getting these headaches. I guess I'm just not used to it yet."

Odd looked strangely at me, but Yumi just laughed warmly. "That's how every student feels, Aelita. It's completely normal."

Jeremie looked up from his plate. "I don't feel like that."

Odd rolled his eyes. "Well, duh. You're the exception of the rule. That's why everybody calls you Einstein."

I looked down at my plate and smiled. I'm really lucky to have friends like these.

"You gonna eat that?"

I looked up to see Odd looking at me and my plate. I looked at his own only to find it empty. It had been full just a moment ago. "Eh, no... go ahead," I stuttered.

"sweet," he said. "Thanks, Princess." He smiled happily as he gulped down the remainders of my food. I chuckled at the sight, while the others simply shook their heads.

"Odd!" We heard an angry voice say. I turned around to see Sissi stomping towards our table. Just what we needed.

"Hiya, Sissi," Odd answered cheerfully. "How can I be of service? If you're looking for a date, then I'm sorry, but I'll have to say no."

"Up yours, scrawny." Odd's eye clearly twitched. "Who do you think you are, huh? not only do we have to sit through you gluttonous behavior every day, but now we also have to sit through your annoying outbursts! Can you be any more annoying?"

I decided to help out a little bit. "Sissi, I think your father is calling for you." Everybody looked at me.

"No he's not," she fumed. "What kind of Idiot do you think I am, Stones?"

"Well, you'd know that better than me," I smiled.

Sissi stuttered out some angry noises before stomping angrily away.

"´Atta girl," Ulrich smiled.

"Yup," Odd agreed. "You're learning that it barks more than it bites."

"Don't you mean `she´?" I asked curiously.

"Nope, `it´."

The rest of the lunch hour was uneventful, and it ended too soon. I was one of the last ones to get up from my seat.

_Back to class_, I thought lightly as I headed for the exit with a sigh. I stopped when I felt someone grab my wrist. I looked behind me at a grinning Odd.

"O-Odd?" I stuttered.

"Come on," He said.

I blinked at him, not understanding what he meant. "Come where?"

"Where ever you want. We're skipping class," he said happily.

"W-w-what?" I yelped. "We can't do that." Odd just grinned.

"Yes we can. You need a break, and so do I."

Before I could argue any further, Odd ran out of the cafeteria, dragging me with him.

"Odd," I shrieked, I tried to sound serious, but it came out more playful than anything else. "We can't, we're going to get into trouble!" The only answer he had for me was a hearty laugh. Really, he's just like a child. Not a single care in the world.

And I suddenly realized that I was jealous.

We came to a halt when we'd gotten a good ways from the school. He turned to face me, his face flushed from all the running, but smiling nonetheless.

"So," he breathed. "Where do you wanna go?"

"I..." Where did I want to go? "I don't know," I said almost sadly. Between XANA and school, there were hardly any time at all for anything else.

"I have an idea," Odd said with a wink. "Come on." He grabbed my hand again, and once again we were running through the streets. And I was enjoying every part of it. He eventually stopped outside a small shop.

"Wait here," he told me. I nodded as he went into the store. I stood outside the store thinking of how we were skipping school, something we weren't allowed to do. It was an exhilarating feeling. I smiled a little to myself. _is this what it means to be alive?_ I wondered.

"Ready to go, Princess?" I turned towards Odd, not having noticed him coming out again.

"Mhm," I replied with a smile. We began walking again, only this time we weren't holding hands. I almost missed the feeling... "Where are we going?" I wondered.

"To the park," he said simply. I then noticed the bread in his hand.

"Why do you have a loaf of bread with you?" He only smiled and chuckled.

"You'll see."

It didn't take us long to get to the city park. I had never been there before, so I was amazed by the beautiful greenery in the middle of the city. We were basically all alone here, too since everybody was either at school or work. t had this really nice serenity to it.

Odd stopped in front of a big pond, and gave me a chunk of the bread. I looked questioningly at him.

"We're going to feed the ducks," he said cheerfully. I looked down at the many quacking animals. Odd threw a piece of his bread into the water, and we watched as chaos exploded as the ducks tried to get the bread. I laughed loudly and decided to throw some of my bread into a different part of the pond. I watched in amusement as the ducks hurried to get it before anybody else got it.

"My grandmother used to take me to our local pond to feed the ducks when I was little," Odd said suddenly. "I always loved doing that, so my grandmother would always take me there when I was staying at her place."

Odd had never really mentioned his family before, so I was a bit curious.

"What's your family like?" I asked as I threw more bread to the ducks.

"I lived in a town by the sea along with my mother, father and five sisters." I looked at him.

"_Five_ sisters?" He laughed.

"Yep, goes without saying that me and my dad felt a bit outnumbered." He then got an almost scared look on his face. "Every four weeks were hell." I laughed loudly at the joke.

"You're so odd," I said, joking with his name.

"By name and nature." He paused for a second before continuing. "When I was leaving Italy, my father actually begged me not to leave him alone, saying that they would eat him alive. I was just happy to get away."

"You don't like your family?" He looked at me with a surprised look.

"Don't get me wrong, I love my family. They're the best I could ever have hoped for and I don't know what I would have done without them."

At that moment I looked down at the ground. Asking him about his family just reminded me that I don't have any. Sure, there is Odd and the others, but that's not a real family. Odd seemed to notice my thoughts, and said no more. He threw another piece of bread to the squabbling ducks.

"So how are you, Aelita?" I looked at him. "How are you, really?" I looked away. He had a serious look on his face again. I didn't like his serious face. Odd is the one person who is always cheerful and smiling. The one who makes everybody laugh and feel good. Seeing his serious face makes me feel like something is terribly wrong.

"Tired," I admitted. "Tired, but better after you..." my words trailed off as my thoughts went back to that day in the Hermitage. I'd been a complete wreck that day, but Odd had helped me get back up. He'd been serious back then as well. It's so unusual. "You gave me much to think about, and I realize now that I was just being stupid and overreacting."

"You were not being stupid, Aelita," he said warmly. "Everybody has bad days, and that was your first one. You had every right to be sad."

I smiled, grateful for the encouragement he gave. "Well, I'm not a naïve child anymore, and words doesn't bother me anymore." I pause, and said a bit more quietly: "But the looks some of the students give me are worse than words."

Odd didn't say anything. I looked down at the ground again, and felt him grab a hold of my hand. I looked up at him, but he wasn't looking at me. I smiled a little bit and squeezed his hand a little bit harder.

He was still holding my hand as we walked through the park. Or maybe I was holding his? I don't really know, but I admit that I enjoyed it.

We'd given the ducks all the bread we had, and was now walking quietly through the park. Odd hadn't said anything after he took hold of my hand, but I honestly didn't mind that. t was a quite comfortable silence after all. However, what struck me as a bit odd was that he hadn't looked at me either. And that I did mind.

Once again, I felt Odd pull my arm as he started to run again.

"Odd," I gasped. I looked at the direction we were going and noticed a playground in front of us. "What are you..." I began, but Odd cut me off.

"I haven't been to a playground in years!" He exclaimed. He let go of my hand and jumped up at the monkey bars, hanging himself upside-down with his legs. He closed his eyes and giggled brightly, and I couldn't help but to giggle along with him. I also noticed that for once his hair didn't seem to defy gravity and the other laws of physics.

"Honestly," I giggled, "You _are_ really just like a child."

Odd dropped himself to the ground, and managed to land in a very graceful, cat-like manner.

"The way I see it," Odd said as rose to his feet. "Life is too short to waste inside a boring, old classroom or office building. I love life," he exclaimed, extending his arms to the sides. "I love having fun, and I'm not planning on stopping just because idiots say I'm being weird and childish."

I looked at him, realizing even more how jealous I was of him. How envious I was of his mindset. How he didn't care what others said no matter what.

"You're not weird," I whispered, looking down at my boots. I don't know if he heard me or not, but soon enough he called my name from the top of a big slide. He waved me over, and all my previous thoughts disappeared. I ran over and began climbing up the slide.

"Princess," he said with an extended hand when I was almost at the top.

"Why, thank you, Ser," I said with a giggle. He pulled me up, and said with a light laugh:

"Ser? Aren't knights supposed to be tall and gallant?"

"Well, I know for a fact that you fulfill one of those requirements."

A new silence engulfed us as we just stood there facing each other.

"Thank you, Odd," I said breaking the silence.

"You're welcome," he said, puffing out his chest.

"No, I mean thank you. For everything. If it hadn't been for you, then things would have been so much different. Honestly, I don't think I would have enjoyed everything half as much if it hadn't been for you."

Odd gave me a sincere smile. The same kind of smile he had given me in the cafeteria when I came back that day. It made my heart flutter.

"There's no need to thank me, Aelita. You're my friend, and I would do anything for my friends. No charge."

"Still," I argued. "I feel like I should do something in return."

"Seeing you smile is payment enough, Princess," he said, going back to my old nickname.

Yet again, silence surrounded us. I gazed into Odd's dark blue eyes, and I felt this intense flutter in my chest once more. What I did next, even I didn't know until I had done it.

I embraced him in a tight hug. I could feel him tense up and hesitate for a moment, but then he too embraced me. The only thing that went through my mind then was how warm he was. How nice it felt.

_what am I doing,_ I thought to myself. _It's Odd. My best friend._ But no matter what my subconscious told me, I held on. And so did he.

Too soon though, he broke the embrace. He smiled at me and said:

"Race you to the bottom?" I looked curiously at him for a second, and he took the chance to slide back down.

"Oh, you," I said. "No fair!" And I slid down after him.

We kept on going like this for... I don't know, but for a long time. We ended up having a contest on who could jump the furthest with the swings. Unfortunately, Odd won hands down. But that was only because of my clothing. Every time I jumped, I would squeal and try to keep my skirt down so I wouldn't flash my underwear. Odd found it absolutely hysterical, and laughed so hard he fell down. I then started running after him with a face covered in a dozen shades of red, yelling at him in mock anger. He would laugh throughout the entire scene of course.

I did end up catching him, though I ended up on top of him much like on Lyoko. This only served to make me even more embarrassed, so I punched him lightly on his chest while he laughed away.

It was first then I noticed the sun had started to set. Had we really been out for so long? It certainly didn't feel like it.

"We should probably head back now," Odd finally said. I only nodded in response.

All good things must come to an end.

"Get off me now?" Odd asked with a small smile that almost felt as if was mocking me.

"Sorry," I whispered with a flushed face, and got off him. I got up, dusted myself off and straightened out my skirt. As Odd rose back to his feet, I furiously tried making my skirt longer, as I was feeling increasingly self-conscious around him. My cheeks felt so flushed I could only imagine myself as a tomato.

Odd only smiled and gave me a light "Come on." I nodded and began following him, making sure I was two steps behind him because of my embarrassment.

Walking through the streets, it finally hit me.

"Oh, no," I exclaimed, clasping my hands over my mouth. "We're going to be in so much trouble for this." What were we going to do? Not only had we skipped class, which was bad enough by itself, but we'd been gone till sundown. This was really bad.

To my great confusion, Odd laughed heartily.

"Don't you worry, Princess. Just leave it to me, I'll take care of it. I'll just explain how I tricked you into this," he said with a smile.

"No!" I said loudly, bringing his attention to me. "I can't let you take the blame for this, it was my fault as much as it was yours!"

"Don't you worry about a thing, Princess. I have a feeling that with those innocent looks of yours, you could get away with anything. Besides, I doubt they would believe that sweet, little Aelita would do something like this on her own accord. Me on the other hand is a big time trouble maker." He winked at me with a grin. "Besides, I have a way with words and people as you've experienced yourself."

That put me a little bit at ease, but still... was this really okay? Well, it is as he said. He knows how to take care of himself, and getting others to see thing his way.

"Alright," I said meekly as we entered Kadic Academy.

Odd turned around to face me. He grinned brightly and said:

"Well, I better find Jim before he finds me. See you later, Aelita."

He turned back around, ready to leave, but I grabbed a hold of his hand before he could take a step.

"Aelita?"

I tiptoed, and kissed him on the cheek. He clearly blushed, and I giggled at the reaction.

"Thank you for giving me the best time of my life, Odd," I said truthfully. "You were right. I really needed a break." I tiptoed again and kissed his other cheek. "And good luck."

He shook off his blush, and replied with a sly smile:

"I don't believe in luck. Good night, Princess." He ran into the building, leaving me outside with many confusing thoughts.

"Good night, Odd."

And life goes on.

**I'm happy with the outcome of this. I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this, and that you'll perhaps take your time to write a review to tell me if there's something I can improve. I'm planning on writing one more story to end this "Life" series. If you have an idea, I'm all ears. Thank you for your time.**

**And merry Christmas from Norway :D**

**-Lord of Tuft.**


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